


seen her before

by lesbianryuko



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friends of Red Jenny, Gen, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition Quest - In Your Heart Shall Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 10:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20487377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianryuko/pseuds/lesbianryuko
Summary: Their brief encounter happened over a decade ago, but Sera still recognizes Leliana immediately.





	seen her before

**Author's Note:**

> i banged this out for sera appreciation week on tumblr, day 1: red jenny! title from "lacuna" by heirsound

Sera almost loses her mind the first time she sees Leliana in Haven.

She’s older than Sera remembers, of course (because that’s how time works, right?), and she looks harsher, like she’s seen much more ugliness in the world since their last encounter. But her hair is cut in just the same way, and her accent is unmistakable. Normally Sera would make fun of stuffy Orlesians and their funny ways of saying things, but Leliana doesn’t seem all that stuffy; she never has.

Sera doesn’t speak to Leliana at first. She always seems busy, probably because she always is, and it’s doubtful that she’d even remember. It would be completely stupid to just go up to her and say, “Hey, remember that time you helped deliver a box to the Red Jennies in Denerim ten years ago? I was there! I saw you!” What’s even the point of it anyway? To _ bond _ or some shite? She’ll probably just get a strange look and a noncommittal response, at best.

So for the first week or so, she doesn’t bring it up. She pretends not to be intrigued by Leliana’s role as spymaster, the way she commands a group of agents working in the shadows, not dissimilar to Sera’s role in the Red Jennies. She pushes away any thoughts of talking to the prestigious Lady Nightingale about her methods and experiences. They probably wouldn’t even be able to find common ground, she tells herself. Leliana is friends with the Hero of Ferelden. Leliana is the Left Hand of the frigging _ Divine_. Sera’s just...Sera. Sure, she has status in the Red Jennies and contacts all over Thedas, but that doesn’t feel like enough. _ She _ doesn’t feel like enough.

Leliana doesn’t come to the tavern that often, so Sera almost does a double-take when she walks in the door one evening while Sera is sitting alone at a table in the corner, responding to a letter from one of the Jennies about the crimes of a Fereldan lesser noble. She’s even more surprised when, after quickly surveying the room, Leliana makes her way over to the table and takes a seat across from Sera.

Sera’s head shoots up, startled, and she instinctively rests an arm across the letter so Leliana can’t read its contents. “Uh...hi,” she says, trying not to sound confused or intimidated. Frig. This is already going badly.

Leliana takes off her hood, as if to seem more approachable. “Sera, yes? Of the Red Jennies?”

Sera furrows her brows. She can feel herself getting defensive. “Yeah. That’s me. That’s us. And we may seem like just some nobodies doing nothing, but we’ve got people helping people. Getting rid of rich knobs that hurt people. Not too far off from what you do, yeah?”

Leliana tilts her head. “I know. The Herald made a good choice, recruiting you.”

Sera almost doesn’t register Leliana’s words at first. “If you’ve got something to say about me and my friends, you can—wait, what?” She can feel her face heating up, and she giggles a little to hide her embarrassment. She’s just so used to people patronizing her or looking down on her. “Well. I didn’t expect that. From you, or from anyone, really. Hard to know what people will say around here, especially when no one wants to give it to you straight.”

Leliana shrugs. “There are advantages to speaking in code,” she says, “but I see no reason to do so right now. I think you and your Jennies will be indispensable to the Inquisition. In fact, I’d say you have been already.”

Sera’s head is spinning. She never expected _ the _ Leliana, beautiful and clever and deadly, to give her the time of day, let alone consider her a valuable ally. “Speaking of the Jennies,” she says, as if she’s only just now thought of this, as if she hasn’t been thinking about it for over a week now, “you helped us once, remember? In Denerim.”

Leliana doesn’t even seem surprised. “I knew you looked familiar.”

Sera tries not to smile, and fails. _ She remembered! She really remembered! _ “Yes!” she exclaims. “You were there, and there was an elven woman with a Grey Warden uniform, and she held that box out to us. And I opened the door a crack and took the box and gave her some sovereigns, and you said something to her and I thought you sounded funny. Yeah!” She laughs. “I was eleven and you didn’t see my face for more than five seconds, and you still remembered me.”

Leliana flashes her the tiniest hint of a smile. “When you’re a spy, it’s important to have a strong memory.” And with that, she stands up from the table and heads over to the bar.

Sera gazes after her, stunned. Then she grabs her quill and finishes the rest of her letter with renewed vigor. _ Oh—and guess what? _ she writes at the end. _ The Left Hand of the Divine knows me! Knows us! _

As she starts to doodle a raven at the bottom, her mind registers the song that Maryden has been playing for the past minute or so. “_Craven master spies,_” she croons. “_Can they find the key that can unlock the past? _”

Sera hums along without really thinking. Joining the Inquisition was a good thing, she decides. There are good people here, people who care, people who fight for what’s right—people like her Jennies.

People like _ her_.


End file.
